WORLD T20: Afghanistan crush New Zealand to increase Super Eight chances

Afghanistan boosted their Super Eight chances with yet another dominating win, this time thumping New Zealand by 84 runs in Providence. Having beaten Uganda by 125 runs in their opening match, they are now at the top of Group C with a net run rate of 5.225.

After being sent in, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran gave Afghanistan a start of 103 in 14.3 overs.

It came off the back of the 154 the pair added against Uganda, thus making them the first opening pair to register two successive century stands in the history of the T20 World Cup.

Afghanistan’s was an innings of two halves. They scored 55 for no loss in the first 10 overs and 104-6 in the last 10, with Gurbaz contributing 80 off 56 balls and Zadran 44 off 41.

New Zealand, who had decided not to play any warm-up games, looked every bit rusty as their fielders dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities.

With the pitch assisting both seamers and spinners, chasing 160 was not going to be easy. But few would have expected New Zealand to collapse in the manner they did.

Fazalhaq Farooqi picked up three wickets in the powerplay and Rashid Khan three just after it. Eventually, both ended with identical figures of 4-17 as New Zealand were bowled out for 75 in the 15.2 overs. Glenn Phillips and Matt Henry were the only New Zealand batters to reach the double digits. (ESPNcricinfo) 

Elsewhere, Bangladesh survived a scare to make a winning start to their campaign, getting a two-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in Dallas.

Pathum Nissanka impressed with 47 off just 28 balls, but a flurry of late wickets saw Sri Lanka stumble to 124-9 after a strong start.

Bangladesh’s chase started poorly, with both openers being dismissed in the first two overs. However, after Towhid Hridoy’s 40, and Liton Das’ 36, Mahmudullah’s 16 not out helped them over the line at the end of the 19th over.